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Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Phil Arkow talks about the link between animal abuse and interpersonal violence.

Phil Arkow is an advocate for animals and humans.

We
were recently fortunate enough to meet Phil Arkow, who leads the National LinkCoalition looking at the association between animal abuse and interpersonal violence. Reporting of suspected animal abuse to authorities is not mandatory in
Australia, though it is in other countries and Phil strongly believes it should be here. He talks about how he developed an interest in this often challenging area.

What’s your day job?

I’m
coordinator of the National Link Coalition – the (inter)national resource
center on The LINK between animal abuse and interpersonal violence. It’s also
my night job. And my weekend job. In between I also teach a few college courses
on animal-assisted therapy and human-animal interactions.

How did you come to specialise in the
link between interpersonal violence and violence towards animals?

Three
events in the 1980s got me thinking that the animal welfare movement wasn’t making
as much progress as it could be. I was working for an animal shelter in the
State of Colorado and was having difficulty – as all animal advocates do –
convincing legislators, funders, and our counterparts in human services that
animal issues matter.

A
veterinarian told me that he was mandated to report suspected child abuse
(Colorado was the only one of our 50 states in which DVMs were specifically
named as such) but that it would be inconceivable for him to report suspected
animal abuse because he might lose a client.

I
saw four drawings made by children in a domestic violence shelter; three of
them depicted animals that had been tortured by the abuser as a means to coerce
and control the family.

Our
shelter approached our city council for a very small $3,000 additional
allocation for our animal control budget which led to a massive debate about
why animal control should get funding. Meanwhile, council quickly approved a
$300,000 cost overrun to pave a street... and no one on council even knew where
the street was, but asphalt is something they can comprehend. I realized that
something was wrong with the picture, and that decision-makers do not care
about moral or ethical issues affecting animals. They care about tangible
services and economics and, more significantly, how animal abuse impacts human
safety and welfare.

For those who don’t know, how are
interpersonal violence and violence towards animals linked?

It
takes 4 main forms:

domestic
violence. Animals become pawns in the power-and-control mechanisms marking
intimate partner violence and are threatened or killed as a coercive control to
warn the spouse of that will happen to her if she asserts any independence.
Thousands of women and their children delay leaving abusive situations in fear
for what would happen to their animals.

risk
factors for children. Children and adolescents who perpetrate or witness animal
cruelty are more likely to develop antisocial behaviours, either concurrently
or in adulthood, which can escalate into violent acts against people.

elder
abuse. Animal hoarding tends to skew towards an older demographic and
frequently co-occurs with animal neglect or self-neglect by the senior.

animal
abuse as a predictor of criminal behavior. Extensive studies (including several
classics in Australia) have documented histories of animal cruelty in the
biographies of criminals. Animal abuse has been found to be a better clue for
screening potential suspects than histories of other crimes, but unfortunately
cruelty cases are so often trivialized that they do not work their way into
criminal databases.

You have championed mandatory reporting
of suspected animal abuse by veterinarians. Others argue that mandatory
reporting may prevent victims of abuse from seeking veterinary care for
animals. Why do you consider mandatory reporting so important?

We
believe the veterinarian should be as proactive in preventing animal abuse as
physicians are in responding to child maltreatment. There is no evidence that
physicians have lost patients or revenue as a result of their serving as
mandated reporters of child abuse. Policies now in effect by the national
veterinary associations in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and New Zealand require
veterinarians to report suspected abuse and all four nations have produced
excellent materials to help guide practitioners through this territory which is
new and uncharted for many of them.

Why is the human animal bond
particularly important in the context of domestic abuse?

The
bond that people have with their animals is especially intense during times of
crisis. We see this over and over again when people will not leave a disaster
scene unless they can take their animals with them. For many people, “crisis”
is also a family breakup. Meanwhile, veterinary marketing studies demonstrate
conclusively that care for companion animals are generally the responsibility
of the woman in the household. Add in the emotional ties binding women and
children to their pets, and you have a toxic point of vulnerability that is
often exploited by abusers seeking to enforce their power and control.

You share your life with a dog called
Barnaby. How did you meet?

I
went to a local animal shelter for a job interview. He was just sitting there
in a cage, a victim of the 2008-09 recession when so many “foreclosure pets”
were surrendered to shelters. He was waiting for just the right someone and I
knew immediately it was me. We went outside for a walk and he followed me
home... as he has done every day since.

What do you do to spend time together?

Barnaby’s
motto is “Let no lap go un-sat.” He’s usually curled up in his bed in my
office, sleeping with one eye open and watching me, and then every so often he
comes up in my lap and tells me it’s time to take a break. And then promptly at
5 pm every day he brings me a squeaky toy as if to say, “Enough’s enough, dad,
it’s time to play.” I don’t know how he tells time so accurately. He must be a
“watch dog.”

What’s the most important thing you’ve
learned about caring for the non-humans in your life?

I
started out as a newspaper reporter which made me a professional dilettante who
is always looking for interesting stories about people’s lives. Twenty-three
years working in animal shelters taught me to appreciate the human condition by
seeing people’s lives through the lens of their animals. Our relationships with
pets are windows into our personalities and mirrors of interpersonal
relationships. And I’ve also learned, as American newspaper columnist Dave
Barry has written, that “You can say any stupid thing to a dog and he’ll look
at you with those big brown eyes and think, ‘My God, that’s amazing! I never
would have thought of that myself!’”

What could we do to make the world
better for non-human animals?

We’ve
been preaching for 150 years the need to develop empathy through humane
education programs and getting people to treat the animals that share our homes
and communities with more respect. That message, as noble as it is, has never
really resonated with the educators, funders and government leaders who can
make change happen: it’s too vague. They need something more tangible and
measurable.

Lisa
Wood and her colleagues at the University of Western Australia have come up
with a better approach. Their research, both in Perth and in three cities in
the U.S., prove pretty conclusively that “social capital” – the communitarian
spirit and glue that hold our societies together – increases when people have
pets. The Link demonstrates that when animals are abused, people are at risk,
and that when people are abused animals are at risk. Once we all realize that
animals are not trivial we will stop marginalizing them and the agencies that
care about them and dollars and legislation will flow to programs that prevent
violence against all vulnerable members of the family.

Any advice you’d like to share with
veterinarians and future veterinarians?

The
American veterinary oath now includes the prevention of animal suffering among
the many mandates. The government in Scotland has identified veterinarians as
one of the top three professions (along with beauticians and dentists) most
likely to encounter abused women. The veterinary team is in a unique position
as the only profession with a three-dimensional voice that transcends
disciplines and that addresses animal health, human health and environmental
health. The trusted relationship clients have with their veterinarians means
that practitioners and their staffs will occasionally be confronted with
problematic but critical responsibilities in what often develop into complex
multi-agency investigations. Physicians dealt with these same concerns 50 years
ago when child abuse was first seen as a medical issue, and has resolved these
issues. The veterinary community is now similarly poised to serve as sentinels
for animal welfare.

Veterinary Ethics: Navigating Tough Cases

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